Religious Education News

Making Jesus Real  Week 2 Term 3

We are continuing to focus on the importance of WELCOMING.  This was reinforced this week, when we learnt our Noongar Word of the Week – KAYA, which means hello.  The Noongar word for welcome is WANJU (https://www.noongarculture.org.au/language/). It has been great to hear the children saying “Kaya” in the morning as they greet their teachers. 

Confirmation 2021

Our Year 6 students have been preparing with Miss Zurzolo for the Sacrament of Confirmation on Friday 20th August. Next Wednesday 4th August, we have our Student and Parent Workshops. We look forward to seeing all our Confirmation Candidates, as they continue to prepare for this special event in their faith life. Please keep them in your prayers. 

 

SAVE THE DATE! Parish School Lunch – Gift from the Parishioners of St Francis of Assisi Parish.

The parishioners of St Francis of Assisi Parish have decided to gift the school with a school and parish community lunch on Sunday 17th October to celebrate our 30th anniversary.  The parish are arranging a luncheon for all members of the school and parish community. Families are encouraged to come along and enjoy this most generous gift from the parish.

Parent Intentions and Enrolments for 2022

Each year we have families discontinue their enrolment at Matthew Gibney Catholic Primary School, for a variety of reasons.  In order for us to allocate places to families who are currently on a wait list for the 2022 school year, I request that families who either know they will be moving, or those families who are thinking about a possible move, to please let the school know as soon as possible.  It is important that we can offer some certainty to parents who would like their child to attend our school in 2022.

Year 3 Good News

 

My holiday reflection through the eyes of my sunglasses!

Parenting Tips – Amy Power (School Counsellor)

Lea Waters – (Psychologist)

Improving one’s behaviour can be quite challenging – especially if it involves a child.

But the good news is that it’s not impossible to do it.

You just have to be consistent in the changes that you have to make.

To help you out, I’ve got 3 P’s that you can use as your guide in improving bad behaviour that your child may be showing.

1 – Priming

When you’re trying to change or improve a behaviour, find the weak spots that cause it.

Take my daughter, Emily, as an example. She can be very impatient, and I noticed that she is especially this way during long car drives. That’s a trigger. So, what do we do to ease that?

We prime her.

That means we explain to her that a long car drive is coming up. We even tell her the time of the trip, and it comes with an explanation of the traffic, etc. Also, we point out that there’s nothing we can do about it. Her impatience won’t make the journey faster. It won’t magically fix peak hour traffic. It’s just going to lead to annoyance, restlessness, and anxiety. Priming helps her prepare for something that she doesn’t want to go through. By doing this, we’re teaching her to be mindful of the situation while going into it.

2 – Present Moment

This is where improving the behaviour is put to the test.  In Emily’s case, it’s showing impatience.

We keep reminding her to be mindful of what’s happening and what she might feel. Every time she starts acting on her impatience, we ask her to take deep breaths. Then, we encourage her to explore how she can respond to impatience differently. We even go so far as to challenge her perspective about whatever’s causing her to feel impatient. We talk about the situations where showing patience brings rewards. All these aim to help Emily learn to come to terms with her impatience. We want her to find a better way to cope with the long drive.

3 – Post-Mortem

Once the event is over, you can discuss how everything went and point out where things can improve. You can talk about their feelings and reactions, and what you can try to do the next time to make the situation better.

In Emily’s case, once the long car drive is over, we talk about what happened and what we can do to make the car trip more interesting.  Of course, you don’t have to do the post-mortem immediately. You can wait a few hours or days. The important thing is to discuss this when everyone is cooler and calmer. It’ll be easier to find ideas on how to make things better next time. No matter what behaviour you’re dealing with, using the 3 P’s will help. It’s a straightforward exercise to help your child get back on track.

Upcoming Term Three Dates

Monday 2nd August

• Milo Monday
• Water Wise Incursion

Wednesday 4th August

• Walk and Wave Wednesday
• 4.00pm and 4.45pm Confirmation Parent, Sponsor, Child Workshop
• Year 3 and Year 5 Bishops’ Religious Literacy Assessment

Friday 6th August

• 9.00am Merit Award Assembly and St Mary of the Cross Mackillop Prayer Service

Monday 9th August

• Milo Monday

Wednesday 11th August

• Walk and Wave Wednesday

Friday 13th August

• 9.00am Feast of the Assumption School and Parish Mass

Monday 16th August

• Milo Monday

Wednesday 18th August

• Walk and Wave Wednesday
• Year 6 Confirmation Retreat Day
• 6.00pm School Advisory Council Meeting
• 7.30pm Parents and Friends Association Meeting